Assorting and delivering mechanism



Feb. 5, 1929.

A. ZIMNIEWICZ ASSORTING AND DELIVERING MECHANISM Filed Dec. 15, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 AN THON) ZIMN/EM/ICZ m Gw mi; &

Feb. 5, 1929. 1,700,869

A. ZiMNIEWlCZ I ASSORTING AND DELIVERING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 5, 1929.

U N IT ED STA T 1,700,869- PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY zirimnw' c'zj or new retain. Y.,- AssIe von B Y ,MEUS'NYE" Ass eNMnn'rs, T0 MIEHLE PRINTING rnnss & MANUFACTURING COMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLI- er ors, A conPonA'rI'oiv OF ILLINOIS.

ASSORTING Ann DELIVERING MECHANISM.

Application filed December 15, 1924;

My present invention relates generally to apparatus for cutting, collecting and piling or stacking sheets of paper and more particularly to an apparatus of this general nature for use in connection with printing machines wherein the printed matter is applied to a continuous paper web, and my primary object is the provision of an apparatus including a cutting olf, collecting, and piling or stacking apparatus which will permit of speeding up of the printing press and properly handle and stack the cut sheets by a relatively slow moving stacking device, the details of the stack ing and web cutting mechanisms being described and claimed in separate applications filed of even date herewith.

According to my invention the printed web passes from the printing press at a speed considerably in excess of that which the usual stacking device is capable of individually handling and stacking cut sheets and my invention proposes in the first instance a cutting device capable of cutting off the web moving at printing press speed the cut sheets passing to a collecting device which collects several cut sheets and then permits of feeding the cut and collected sheets to the stacking device, the latter thus operating at a greatly reduced speed with respect to that of the printed web. By thus permitting of the stacking of several sheets at each operation, I am enabledto speed up the printing operationto the full capacity of the-press and still stack the cut papers effectively and efficiently.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate my invention in a moreor less diagrammatic manner,

Figure 1 is a sectional sideview thereof,

Figure 2 is a top plan View; and

Figure 3 'is a view 011 an enlarged scale showing the device for controlling the forward edge of the paper.

Referring now to these figures, I have shown a portion of a newspaper printing r press atlO, from which the printed web 11 is fed through pulling rollers 12 and 13 synchronizing its speed with that during its movement through the printing apparatus. Adjacent to the pulling rollers 12 and '13, a compensating roller 14 receives the web 11 therearound and is shiftable to take up more or less of the Web in order to regulate the points at which the Web is subsequently severed. This roller 14 is adjustable by shaft Serial No. 756,115.

screws' 15 actuated by a cross shaft 16 onwhich is a sprocket wheel 17 connected by a sprocket chain 18 with a hand rotated sprocket wheel 19 at the lower forward porlLlOIlOf the apparatus.

The pulling rollers 12 and 13 are mounted knifebar 21 of a knife carriage '22 whose sides are adjustably mounted on the sides of the frame 20. This knife carriage whose details are claimed in a separate application hasat one side an extension 23 (see Figure 2) through which the upper portion of a vertical shaft 24's projects, this shaft forming a pivot upon which the entire knife carriage is shiftable to a more or less angular position with respect to the moving web 11. In this way knives, one of which is the stationary knife 25 carried by the stationary knifebar 21,. and the other of which is a rotary knife 26'car ried by a rotary knife holder journaled in the carriage, may be angularly adjusted in respect to the speed of movement'of the web so as to cut the latter, at each cutting opera tion during its movement, along a line at right angles to itsside edges at points inthe web determined by the position of the compensating roller 14. It will be understood that the knives 25 and26don'ot cut theen'tire width of the paper instantaneously and therefore the knives must be placed at an angle to the linc'of movement of thepape'r inorder that thecut itself may be at right angles'to the line of movement. This angle'will vary according to the speed of movement of the paper;

For the above purposewthe knife carriage 22l1a's in'its opposite sides arcuate openings 28 throughwhich guidepins29 upstand from the frame sides; These openiiigsQS have a common center concentric with the shaftfl l' and the latter is connected atit's' upper'end by gears 30'with the rotary knife holder 27 so that in its adjustment the entire knire'earriage swings on the shaft. On theside's of the frame 20 adjusting screws 31 provide for ready quick adjustment of the knife'carriage whichbecomesnecessary whenever, for any reason, the speed of movementof the web 11 is changed.

The shaft 2 is connected at itslower end by bevel gears 32 with a drive shaft 33 which may, and will in practice, extend from the printing press with which my improvements are utilized, as seen in Figure 1. This drive shaft 33 extends forwardly to a pointadjacent to the collecting cylinder 34 whose function is to collect and retain a series of sheets cut in the knife carriage 22, say for instance three sheets and discharge the same when the fourth sheet reaches the cylinder. For thispurpose the sheets as they are cut in the knife carriage drop upon feed tapes 35 extending around rollers 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40, of which roller 36 is mounted transversely below the knife bar 14 and roller 39 is mounted below, and forwardly of, the collecting cylinder 34, and is, like this cylinder driven by suitable connections from the drive shaft As each cutsheet passes forwardly below the knife carriage on the tapes 35, it is engaged by an upper series of tapes 41 located wholly between the knife carriage and the collecting cylinder 34 and extending around rollers 42, 43, 44, 45 and 46 arranged as shown so that the lower run of the tapes 41 bears upon the rear portions of the upper run of the tapes 35 so as to clasp the cut sheets and insure the feed of these sheets even and straight to the collecting cylinder 34.

As each fourth sheet passes forwardly and downwardly between the tapes 35 and 41 to the collecting cylinder 34, the latter releases the three sheets previously received thereby one at a time, and the four sheets together pass forwardly and downwardly upon the lower forward portions of the tapes 35 and between pressure rollers 47 which insure the proper delivery of the sheets to the upper rear portion of the stacking tapes 48 which pass forwardly around roller 49 located immediately in front of the forward roller 39 of the feed tapes 35.

In their forward extension from the roller 49, the stacking tapes 48 pass horizontally between the sides of a stacking frame 50 to a delivery carriage 51 which is movable horizontally in guided relation between said frame sides and in connection therewith and isshifted forwardly and rearwardly over the paper stack 52, the latter on a vertically adjustable table 53. F or this purpose the ends of the carriage 51 are attached to the lower runs of endless chains 54 passing around sprockets 55 and 56 at the upper, front and rear portions of the stacking frame 50, which chains are shifted inalternately opposite directions through connections to be presently described.

The delivery carriage 51 supports a freely revoluble roller 57 around which the tapes 48 pass rearwardly to a guide roller 58, thence forwardly around this roller and downwardly around a roller 59. The tapes then pass upwardly around one roller 60 of a vertically movable compensator carriage 61 and downwardly around a stationary roller 62 and then upwardly around the second roller 63 of the compensator carriage to the first mentioned roller 49, it being noted at this point that rollers 49 and 58 are clutch rollers, the clutches of which prevent movement of the rollers except in one direction.

On the shaft of the sprocket is a gear wheel engaged by a rack bar 65, the latter shiftable upwardly and downwardly by the crank 66 of a crank shaft 67, geared by gears 68, 69, 70 and 71 to the collecting cylinder 34. The shaft of sprocket 55 also has a second sprocket 7 2 whichreceives the upper portion of a vertically disposed endless chain 7 3 whose lower portion travels around an idler sprocket 74. To this chain 73 the compen sator carriage 61 is attached so that as the stacking carriage 51 moves forwardly the compensator carriage 61 moves upwardly and permits the upper portions of the stacking tapes 48 to be drawn forwardly by carriage 51. As the stacking carriage 51 moves rear wardly the con'ipensator carriage moves downwardly and thus takes up the tapes, permitting those portions of the tapes between the roller 49 and the stacking carriage to remain stationary, so as to hold the sheets stationary. Thus in its rearward movement the stacking carriage simply recedes beneath the sheets allowing them to drop onto the stack as shown in Figure 1.

At the front and rear portions of its sides, the table 53, on which the sheets are piled to form the stack 52, has guide brackets 7 5 slidable verti'ally on uprights 76 attached to the stack frame 50, and this table is supported by chains 7 7 whose lower ends are secured to cross battens 78 beneath the table. The upper portions of the chains extend outwardly over sprockets 79 secured upon lengthwise shafts 80, the latter having at their forward ends worm wheels 81. These shafts 80, rotation of which in one direction slowly lowers the table 53 as the stack of sheets accumulates thereon, are actuated by a cross shaft 82 having worm gears 83 in engagementwith the worm wheels'81, the cross shaft being rotated through any suitable conneetions so as to bring about the desired adjustment of the stack during operation.

Moreover, as shown in Figure 3, the carriage 51 supports thereon a rock shaft 84 having a series of projecting fingers 85 therealong which are turned downwardly between the stacking tapes 48 during the forward movement of the carriage 51 so that these fingers together form a shoulder against which the forward edges of the sheets engage to insure alinement of the latter and avoid danger of their movement beyond the carriage. During the forward movement of the carriage the sheets are prevented from upward movement by virtue of tapes 86 parallel with and above the stacking tapes 48 and extending at one end around a roller 87 and at the other end around one of the pressure rollers 47.

The rock shaft 84- is shifted so that the fingers 85 are raised above the stacking tapes and free 01' the cut sheets when the carriage 51 reaches the limit of its forward movement. For this purpose an arm or lever 88 projecting from one end of the rock shaft engages a stud 89 on the stacker frame. In this Way when the carriage 51 begins its neXt rearward movement, the cut sheets are free to drop onto the stack 52. The rock shaft 84L is reversed by its lever 88 which at the limit of rearward movement of the carriage 51 comes into engagement with a stud 90 on the stacker frame which acts to shift the rock shaft in the opposite direction and restore the fingers 85 to the downwardly extending effective position shown in Figure 2.

Thus, in operation, it is obvious that by utlizing a rotary knife holder 27 of the same diameter as the printing cylinder of the press in connection with which my improvements are mounted, any adj ustment of speed of the printing cylinder finds the cutting mechanism equally responsive. It is obvious moreover that this speed of movement of the printing and cutting mechanisms may be greatly increased over that usually prevailin g in view of the fact that the stacking device need make but one complete operation to the cutting and delivery of four sheets.

Upon each release of sheets from the collecting cylinder 34, the sheets so released pass from the feed tapes 35 onto the upper portions of the delivery tapes 48 which at this time are moving forwardly by virtue of the forward movement of the carriage 51. The rack bar 65 is at this time moving upwardly and when this rack bar starts its next downaround which the web is movable between said pulling through rollers and the cutting mechanism, a collecting device for collecting a series of out sheets and releasing the same as a series, and a stacking mechanism having means to receive and stack each series of sheets released from the collecting device.

2. An associating and delivering apparatus, including a cutting mechanism for severing a moving web into similar sections or sheets, pulling through rollers for feeding a printed web to said cutting mechanism, a compensating roller adjustable toward and away from the cutting mechanism and around which the web is movable between said pulling through'rollers and the cutting mechanism, a collecting device for collecting a series of cut sheets and releasing the same as a series, and a stacking mechanism having means to receive and stack each series of sheets released from the collecting device, cooperating guide tapes for conveying the cut sheets from the cutting mechanism to the collecting device and from said collecting device to the stacking mechanism.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

ANTHONY ZIMNIEWICZ. 

